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Thursday, August 11, 2005

During the middle of the Great Depression, the Chicago Defender and theBlack Press found itself in trouble with the United States government for it‘s stance onWorld War II and the outcome of an editor's conference called by government officials in 1918.Specifically, Chicago Defender founder Robert S. Abbott was called on thecarpet for his news coverage of lynching in the South and North and his effort thatbrought more than 50,000 Black Southerners to Chicago during the Great Migration.Near the end of the 1930s, the Chicago Defender, needed new leadership.Before his death February 29, 1940, Abbott called on his nephew, John Sengstacke to runthe newspaper.And he did so, although, reluctant. "I wasn't too keen on it," he told John Taylor, a Chicago Defenderreporter in 1975.Graduating in 1933 from Hampton University with a degree in BusinessAdministration, Sengstacke went home to Savannah, Georgia instead of coming to Chicagolike Abbott had wanted. Three months later he was in Chicago. Upon arrival, he said he did everything from writing editorials torunning the presses. In six month's time he asked Abbott for stock in the company because hedidn't' want a "long legal hassle," he said. But there were bigger concerns that needed his attention besides thenewspaper's growing wealth and legacy. Sengstacke had become alarmed by the growing threat of censorship.by the United States government, who in turn, was serious about theirallegations of treason against the newspaper.Along with other African American newspapers, the Defender protested thetreatment of African American servicemen fighting in World War II and urged theintegration of the armed forces.In 1942, J Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigationprovided Attorney General Francis Biddle with lengthy reports on what he saw as seditiousactivity by the African American press. It started innocently enough. A cafeteria worker named James Thompson,wrote a letter to the Pittsburgh Courier, troubled by the fact that he might be called uponto defend a nation in which he was treated like a second-class citizen. He suggested that African Americans espouse a 'double V' campaign. Thesymbol stood for victory at war over enemies 'from without,' and victory at home againstthe enemy of prejudice 'from within.' When other readers wrote to congratulateThompson on his idea, the Courier launched a huge publicity campaign, complete with lapel pins andstickers, 'double V' hair styles and songs.The Chicago Defender picked up on the campaign.It kept awareness of the injustices of segregation alive during the war.It also brought attention to Jim Crow-style segregation in the armed forces. The troopsthemselves were segregated, but black outfits were assigned white commanding officers. Even the military's blood supply for the wounded was segregated by race.White soldiers brutalized black soldiers, and race riots took place in camps wheretroops of both races resided. The military tried to suppress word of these events, withpartial success; only the black press reported discrimination and discord within the troops andthusly, their newspapers were banned from military grounds.J. Edgar Hoover saw the double V campaign as an act of sedition. TheChicago Defender had once again, become the subject of a government investigation.With President Franklin D. Roosevelt's approval, Hoover sought to indictblack publishers for treason and shut down the Black Press. May of 1942, Franklin Roosevelt told his Attorney General, FrancesBiddle, to instead, talk to some of the black publishers and ask them to tone down what they werewriting--again.

Comments on this situation were discussed by Sengstacke, before his deathin 1997, with Patrick Washburn. The film, The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, byStanley Nelson is based the interview.

"June, mid-June, 1942, John Sengstacke, the publisher of The ChicagoDefender and -- and the top publisher, if you want to call him that, of the black press,walked in the room at the Justice Department and Biddle was there to meet him. There were allthese papers, like The Cleveland Call and Post laid out on the table, included his own. And,he looks at these newspapers. They're all playing up the fact the blacks and whites arekilling each other off at these Army camps in the South. And, ah, Biddle says, "See thesenewspapers? These are hurting the war effort and if you don't stop writing this stuff,we're gonna take some black publishers to court under the Espionage Act," Washburn said.

"Well, Sengstacke, who is incredibly tough and was also a collegegraduate, like Biddle, although he didn't go to Harvard and Harvard Law School, says to, Biddle,"Look, we've been writing' this stuff since the 1820s, since black newspapers started inthis country, and we don't intend to stop now. And if you don't like it, just take us to courtunder the Espionage Act." And you -- you've got to realize what an incredible thingthat is for Sengstacke to say to Biddle because Biddle's the Attorney General of theUnited States, the top law officer. He clearly has the right to take 'em to court if hewants to," Washburn said.

"Ah, well,, over the next 45 minutes or an hour, the two men calmed down.At the end of that time, Biddle tells, Sengstacke, he says, "Look, we're not gonna takeyou to court under the Espionage Act, you or the other black publishers, if you don'twrite anything that's more critical than what you're writing right now on the federalgovernment. However, I hope that you and the other black publishers will tone down what you'rewriting." And he also promised that he would get black reporters into these pressconferences of white officials. That was another little kind of thing that happened," Washburnsaid.Sengstacke spread the word within the Black press about what happened atthe meeting.Two years after assuming the role of publisher of the Defender,Sengstacke, negotiated a compromise with the Justice Department that protected the First Amendmentrights of the African American press.It was the first of many firsts for Sengstacke, according to ThomasPicou, chairman of Real Times, Inc., parent company of the Chicago Defender."John Sengstacke's was my uncle by marriage but also my guardian untilage 21," Picou said."He was chairman of a committee that desegregated the U.S Military aspart of the Committee on Equality Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Forces."Through that, he developed a relationship with President Harry S.Truman," he said.He also founded the Negro Newspaper Publishers Association in 1940 andhelped Harry McAlpin became the first African-American correspondent at the White House,through the agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. He arranged a meeting with the BrooklynDodgers that helped Jackie Robinson become the first MLB player, Picou said.

The Bud Billiken parade started in the 1920s by Abbott butSengstacke incorporated Defender Charities in 1945 to help support it,along with scholarships.By 1956 the Chicago Defender began daily production, in time to chroniclethe events of the Little Rock Nine, the landmark Brown vs. the Board of Education schooldesegregation case, according to his son Robert "Bobby" Sengstacke, former photographer forthe Chicago Defender. His photographs, many posted inside the newspaper, chronicledBlack Chicago through to the Civil Rights Movement and the fruits of its success."He used the newspaper to go around the country helping to improve therace, bit by bit. He sent a team of reporters out of the Tri-State Defender in Memphis,Tennessee to cover the Little Rock Nine," he said. Later, his father brought them to Chicago to make appearances."I don't know if they were here to raise funds or not. He put them up ina downtown hotel for several days. They were like any other kids. They didn't talk a lotabout it but they all had to be gutsy to do what they did," Bobby Sengstacke said.

The 1960s found Sengstacke back to business as usual, serving thecommunity through relevant news.It also mean a more demanding schedule."There was so much responsibility with the paper but he found time tocome home. Sometimes the press would break down and they would have problems getting the paperout. My father did a lot of great things but he wasn't easy to get along with because hewas very headstrong," Bobby Sengstacke said.But he always came out a winner, said Sengstacke, who is now the onlysurviving son.” When you are in charge, you want to make it successful so if people thought hewas a dictator--we got paid and we made money," he said."You had to be persistent with him though. It was always about business,"he said.He was great friends with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saidJoslyn DiPasalegne, Sengstacke family historian, granddaughter of John Sengstacke and VicePresident of Event Marketing. He was heavily involved in the Civil Rights marches andagenda."Whenever Martin Luther King was in Chicago, he saw John," she said.Sengstacke mostly focused on improving the Defender during the 1970s. He expanded it's circulation as far as O'Hare International Airport. Ithad a daily circulation of about 25,000, according to newspaper records. Hecriticized area merchants for not wanting to handle his product."Some distributors just don’t want us The same goes for some hotels butthere are a lot of Blacks patronizing their places," he told one of his reporters during aninterview.He hoped for improved race relations."It provably won't come during my lifetime but I hope some day we willgraduate from tokenism to become full fledged members of the American scene," he said.He said African-Americans as a race had to "keep the pressure on."He reflected that his father never really got to chose his career path.He said his uncle Abbott was sick and there was no one else at the time, qualified to runthe newspaper."I never got to ask him what he wanted to do with his life. Nobody knew.After he started the daily, he slowed down," Bobby Sengstacke said.John Sengstacke started Amalgamated Publishing, an advertising companybut when he turned the company over to new leadership, the business went down hill, BobbySengstacke said.In the 1990s, the Defender rolled along on its own strength. Back in the1950s and 1960s 90 percent of the youth had a Defender. You could always find a party goingon. All of that dropped off," he said.Near the end of his father's life, he began raising money for ProvidentHospital.Provident had been closed. He opened it so that poor Blacks didn't haveto go all of the way to Cook County Hospital. He wanted to make sure people on the SouthSide had health care. He raised $55 million but it absorbed all of his time for 10years," Bobby Sengstacke said.

The paper ran into serious financial problems and John Sengstackereturned his attention to the newspaper. He was also fighting a lifelong battle with emphysema.He was in his 80s. He went back to chain smoking and in about a year orso after returning to the newspaper. Soon after, he died," Bobby Sengstacke said.John Sengstacke also owned the Courier newspapers of Pittsburgh and Miamiand the Chronicle of Detroit.Chicago Defender publication grew to become the largest African-Americandaily in the country. Besides being directly involved in the desegregation of the U. S. armedforce, he also worked closely with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create jobs in theUnited States Postal Service for African-Americans, according to the African AmericanRegistry Web site.He died May 28, 1997 of emphysema. His brother Fred Sengstacke, who started out at the Defender in 1935 as ajanitor, took over as publisher. ###

(1868-1940) founded the Chicago Defender on May 6, 1905. He was born to former slaves Thomas and Flora Abbott in a cabin,

in Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia according to a

Philadelphia-based Mount Union College Web site on Abbott. Soon Abbott's father died of tuberculosis and Flora remarried to

John Hermann Henry Sengstacke and it is here the legacy began.

Abbott's stepfather John, was a hardworking, well educated man.

John’s father, also John Hermann Henry Sengstacke, was a German

sea captain from Brehman, Germany who settled in Savannah Georgia

during the late 1830s, according to Joslyn DiPasalegne, Vice

President of Event Marketing, Sengstacke family historian and

Abbott’s great-niece. "One day while surveying his new home, he went to the factors

walk--an area where warehouses and factories were in town. The

(sea captain) stared in horror. He had never seen a slave auction

before," she said.He bought Tama to keep her from being humiliated. Shortly after

her purchase, he married her and they settled in Savannah. He

started a dry goods store in an area near factor's walk. They had

two children; John, Abbott’s stepfather and John's sister Mary

Flaurance.

Tama died shortly after giving birth to her daughter.The German sea captain, not wanting his children to become slaves

if anything were to happen to him, sent them to Germany to be

raised by his sister, DiPasalegne said."The Civil War kept him from returning to see his children before

he died. After his death Abbott’s stepfather, John came to settle

the sea captain's estate. That is where he met Flora, Abbott’s

mother, who was a recent widow. Her husband Thomas, Abbott's

natural father, died of tuberculosis shortly after Abbott was

born. She was fighting her in-laws over the rights to her son,"

she said. John Sengstacke married Flora and together they raised seven other

children.

Abbott’s stepfather, John became a Congregationalist minister, and

operated a school for black children said the Web site, African

American Registry. He also operated the Woodville Times newspaper in their home state

of Georgia--the predecessor to the Chicago Defender those in the

Sengstacke family believe, DiPasalegne said.Abbott was sent Claflin University and then studied the printing

trade at Hampton Institute from 1892 to 1896.While there, he made a life changing discovery on a trip to

Chicago, singing with the Hampton choir, according to a film by

Stanley Nelson, The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.James Grossman, who is in the film, said Fredrick Douglass at the

age of 75 delivered a speech at the Columbian Exposition but was

heckled by a crowd of rowdy whites. He made his speech anyway about how blacks serve great a purpose

in the world and Abbott was there watching and learning.He said that Abbott was in Chicago for the first time and Ida B.

Wells had recently emerged as a major leader and voice within the

African American community. And all three of these people were

journalists.

Abbott went on to receive a law degree from Kent College of Law,

Chicago in 1898, but because of race prejudice in the United

States, he was unable to practice, in spite of attempts to establish law offices in Gary, Indiana, Topeka, Kansas, and

Chicago, Illinois.

So he returned to his roots. His stepfather John, had a print shop

of his own. Christopher Reed in the film, The Black Press: Soldiers without

Swords, said he believed Abbott's presence at the fair led him to

believe a change in American values could come through the

newspaper.

"Abbott invested the 25 cents he had in his pocket, his good

name and then borrowed money from a friend," DiPasalegne said. He

set his printing equipment in his landlady's dining room with a

folding card table and used a kitchen chair as his office.

On May 5, 1905, he started the Chicago Defender. He sold three hundred copies of the four-page booklet by going

door to door, visiting every barber shop, poolroom, drugstore, and

church on the South Side of Chicago, writes Roi Ottley, author of

The Lonely Warrior: The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbott. Local news was the thrust of the Chicago Defender, as it is today.

Abbott started his earliest reporting by gathering tidbits around

his neighborhood.His newspaper was penned "The World's Greatest Weekly" and

eventually made Abbott one of the first black self-made

millionaires through publishing. He worked for fifteen years to

make the newspaper successful, the African American Registry Web

site said. He also immersed himself into the world of the Black Press.Black Chicago got to see their world chronicled in print. "Our news and neighborhoods were ignored. We didn't exist in the

other papers. We were neither born, we didn't get married, we

didn't die, we didn't fight in any wars, we never participated in

anything of a scientific achievement. We were truly invisible

unless we committed a crime. But in the Black Press, the Negro

press, we did get married. They showed us our babies being born.

They showed us graduating. They showed our PhDs,” Vernon Jarrett

said, in the film, Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.

More than 500,000 Blacks migrated from the south to the north with

more than 50,000 settling in Chicago.

Abbott used The Defender to encourage migration to the North. He

would post job

notices and writings about better conditions in the North. He also

used red headlines to

speak his mind on each lynching that happened in the South in

hopes more Southern blacks

would relocate to the North. He sent the Defender into the South. There, the Defender had a potentialblack audience

nearly 200 times larger than

in Chicago, an audience that was hungry to hear what Abbott had to

say, film maker, Stanley Nelson said.

James Grossman of Nelson's film said the Chicago Defender was

blatant with the truth.

The Defender would say things like, "When the white fiends

come to the door, shoot them down. When the mob comes, take at

least one with you." Those

were things that if you were a black Southern newspaper, if you

were a newspaper editor in

Birmingham, Alabama, you can't say that because your newspaper's

going to get torched or

you're going to get run out of town.”

The nick name of public defender, still sticks in the minds

of those in the community who need help today.

Abbott’s editorial creed was to fight against "segregation,

discrimination and

disenfranchisement.

The Defender reached national prominence during World War I, when

the paper's banner headline for January 6, 1917, read

"Millions to Leave South." The Defender became the bible of many

seeking "The Promised

Land." Abbott used the full resources of the paper -- articles,

editorials, cartoons, poems, and

even songs-- in a campaign to urge the Defender's readers to come

North. The paper even

printed train schedules, one-way to Chicago, Nelson said in his

film.

Abbott advertised Chicago so effectively that even migrants

heading for other

northern cities sought information and assistance from the pages

of the "Worlds Greatest

Weekly." The Chicago Defender was a remarkably successful in encouraging

blacks to migrate from the

South to Chicago, often listing names of churches and other

organizations to whom they

could write for help, such as the Bethlehem Baptist Association in

Chicago, Illinois,

according to information from the Library of Congress.

Still, White southerners did not take the migration seriously.

“When the great migration really first began in the fall of 1916,

white

Southerners were sure that when blacks

went North, they would get cold. and they'd come back. That didn't

happen. Landlords and other employers began to realize that

their workers were

leaving so they began to try to stop people from leaving, which

meant trying to confiscate

The Chicago Defender. They would even have the police go up onto

railroad platforms and

arrest people for vagrancy,“ James Grossman said.

Nelson said with more than ten thousand black people leaving each

month, the South's economy

suffered and its leaders grew desperate. Some towns, ignoring the

Constitution, even banned

the sale of black papers to try to stem the tide of the migration.

In Somerville, Tennessee

a petition ordered that "no colored newspapers be circulated" and

that "every darkie must

read the local white paper." Abbott, asked for help from

the one group of African Americans who traveled freely through the

South--sleeping car porters.

“He hands them bundles of his newspapers, which they hide in the

train, and as these trains roll through the South,

instead of being put off at the stations like they used to be,

which are in the town limits

or the city limits, these porters would step out between cars or

at the back of the train,

toss 'em out in the countryside and suddenly all these Southern

cities found they couldn't

stop the black newspapers, no matter what they did, “ Patrick

Washburn said in Nelson’s film. Thomas Picou, Sengstacke in-law and Chairman of Real Times, Inc. parentcompany of the

Chicago Defender, said the train's path wound through New Orleans makingstops in Jackson

Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee then on to Chicago. "It was called the chicken bone express because blacks

brought boxes of fried chicken with them. The train's dining car

was segregated," Picou said.He said the people from the south also traveled through Indianapolis,

Detroit Michigan Cleveland Ohio to work in the steel mills,

automobile factories and stock yards.

As a result, thousands of prospective migrants got help with the

task of finding housing and employment. During the years to come, Abbott was simply telling black folks

what to do when they made it north during the great migration.Abbott, being a self made millionaire, cared about the social

graces of the new migrants and wanted them to fit into their community.

"Abbott himself was formal and reserved, writes Nelson.“ He was 50 years old before he married. He

would allow neither his first nor his second wife to address him

as other than "Mr.

Abbott". He did not drink and avoided social activities. What he

enjoyed was the trappings

of wealth -- the gold- headed cane, the grand tours of Europe, and

even though he did not

drive, the Dusenberg convertible and Rolls-Royce limousine. Like

many in the black middle

class, Abbott was enamored of the social graces and attempted to

use the paper to teach

them to his readers. He even published a list of rules for

migrant's behavior. Such as:

"Don't promenade on the boulevards in your hog- killin' clothes."

"Don't clean your fingernails and pick your nose on the street."

"Don't flirt with the grocery, especially if your hair is still

chunky and full of bed

lint." " Nelson said.

The Chicago Defender and Mr. Abbott played a major role in

changing the face

the North. Using its pages, Mr. Abbott

was able to influence more than 50,000 African-Americans to leave

southern states and come to Chicago.

But like with all fast change comes conflict. There were riots and

allegations by the Unites States government of sedition during that time.The Chicago Defender came under fire, starting with World War I.Abbott was the first target of the intimidation effort on April 13, 1917,only a week after

the United States entered WWI, according to information from ElliotParker of Central

Michigan University on the CataList Reference Web site.Worried that repressed blacks would refuse to support World War I, theWar Department held

a conference with 31 of the nation's leading black editors in June of1918.

The gathering was a seminal event in the relationship between the blackpress and the U.S.

government in wartime. It led to President Woodrow Wilson making apublic denunciation of

lynching and commuting the sentences of 10 black soldiers who had been

sentenced to death for rioting," Parker wrote.However, in 1919, race riots exploded across the United States andhundreds

of people were killed. It became

known as "The Red Summer".

Grossman said a riot broke out during the summer in Chicago, July

of 1919. In the end, more than 30 people died. Hundreds were injured and

The Chicago Defender ran a box score. At the top of the front page

it would keep track, day-by-day, of how many people on each side

had been killed. The government's first attempt to solve the black press problem,

inflammatory.Members of the Black Press capitalized on white and black soldiers

fighting each other during both World Wars.The Chicago Defender went so far as to send a reporter undercover

to a military camp to capture what was going on, Picou said.During the First World War and the subsequent Red Scare years the

Justice Department and its Bureau of Investigation, the

intelligence branches of the Army and Navy, the State and Post

Office Departments, and other federal agencies engaged in

widespread investigation of anyone deemed politically suspect.

Black Americans were special targets because they were perceived

by some as particularly receptive to the radical ideas. And, it wasn't a secret.Theodore Kornweibel Jr., a Professor of

African American History in the Africana Studies Department at San

Diego State University, wrote about it in an article entitled "The Most Dangerous of All Negro Journals": Federal Efforts to Suppressthe Chicago Defender During World War I."

Abbott, created the "Bud Billiken" picnic in the early 1920s to thankthe children who helped sell his newspapers. The picnic is held inconjunction with the Bud Billiken Parade, the annual South Sidecelebration named for a mythical, squat comic character that serves as amascot.

The parade, held in mid-August, honors black children on a route alongMartin Luther King Drive from 39th to 55th Streets. It is the nation'slargest African American parade, drawing thousands of spectators eachyear.The thousands who heeded Abbott's call to move North created new

urban communities and in city after city, other black newspapers

were established to serve them. Nearly 500 black newspapers were in print by the early 1920s

Government estimates of the Defender's circulation soared tenfold, from12,000 to 120,000,

between 1916 and 1918.

The government cited Abbott's efforts toward migration during the war andbecause the

Defender became available nationwide.But it wasn't just the circulation of the Defender and other blacknewspapers that

concerned the government but the eloquence of the editors and theirability to sway the

public, in the role of journalist.The Justice Department issued a report on October, 1919, on the threat topublic order from

what it considered radical publications. The section on the black press,"Radicalism and

Sedition Among the Negroes as Reflected in TheirPublications," mentioned how articulate many black editors were.

(The citation on the report's reference to the black press: "Investigation Activities of

the Department of Justice," 66th Congress, 1st Session, Senate

Document XII.) Other editors under fire included W. E. B.DuBois of the Crisis, J.H.Murphy of

the Baltimore, Afro-American, J.E. Mitchell of the St. Louis Argus ,Cyril Briggs

of the, Amsterdam News and A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen of the

Messenger.The group of black editors signed a resolution that asked for blackloyalty towards the

country and a belief that the Germans needed to be defeated. In return,they asked for

President Woodrow Wilson was asked to create a federal law againstlynching but heonly denounced

it. There were slight improvements for black soldiers and officersbecause of the

rights results but it had an important psychological impact on theeditors and the militancy would continue during World War II.

As a result, soldiers' reading was curtailed."The Army said, "We don't think this is good. You can't read it."

On a number of bases you had papers that were taken away from

newsboys, black newspapers. You had paper burnings, Patrick

Washburn, who appeared in the film, The Black Press: Soldiers

Without Swords said. Along with other African American newspapers, the Defender

protested the treatment of African American servicemen fighting in

World War II and urged the integration of the armed forces. As a result of their protests, the U.S. government threatened to

indict African American publishers for sedition and treason, again.But Abbott's health was in decline. His 25th anniversary message to the public outlined what Abbott intendedto do when he started the newspaper."Before I started on my life's work--journalism, I was counseled by mybeloved father that a good newspaper was one of the best instruments ofservice and one of the strongest weapon ever used in the defense ofrace." Abbott said.Abbott began a new magazine from October 1930 to September 1933

entitled Abbott's Monthly. Later the name was changed to Abbott’s

Weekly and Illustrated News. Inside were stories written by new

writers such as Richard Wright and Chester Himes. Abbott also

accepted submissions from Cook County, Illinois judges, like

Circuit Court Judge Joseph Burke. He wrote a piece called "Divorce,

the Great American Pastime," according to the cover of the

magazine, found on the Galactic Central Publications Web site.Seven years later, Abbott died at the age of 70.He died of Bright's disease, an inflammation of the kidneys, on

February 29, 1940.By then, he had become the father of three newspapers; The Chicago

Defender, The Louisville Defender, and the Michigan Chronicle in Detroit.However, he did

not have any children, so he left his business with his nephew, John H.Sengstacke.And just in time, because by 1942, near the end of World War II, therewere new charges of sedation against the Chicago Defender and JohnSengstacke would find himself following in his uncle's footsteps. ###

Thursday, August 04, 2005

An act of defiance 20 years ago saved Juan Deas from a life of misery. He diagnosed himself as an alcoholic at the age of 14."I felt early on I would be an active alcoholic for the rest of my life," he said.Eventually, his family slipped away and a chance after high school to attend college.He methodically recounted his history of being addicted, as if he was discussing his own case history with colleges at a staff meeting. He remembered how many times he went to dry out at a men's mission before being confronted by a counselor for fighting, then getting put out of the program. He hit a wall with drinking at his next treatment program where his problems continued."She was screaming at me. The director told me I would never amount to anything," he said.He entered a 30-day program to prove her wrong.Now at the age of 46, he is Program Director at Discovery House in Pennsylvania and has been counseling others on the jagged path of addiction for 16 years. He has earned a certification in addictions counseling and a master's degree in health science. Deas was on hand Wednesday for an open house at the local Discovery House located on Cleveland Street.Richard Heidenreich, the program director at that location, said Discovery House is a national methadone maintenance treatment program for those who are addicted to opiates. They have 13 clinics in five states.He said that their clients are people who are addicted to painkillers like oxycodone HCl controlled-release (Oxycontin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), codeine (Tylenol-3), heroin, morphine or any other opiate. They are one of the few outpatient clinics who enroll teenage clients. "We offer methadone maintenance and counseling services. For those persons in the program that need to be stepped down off of methadone gradually, we offer medically supervised withdrawal," he said.Mark Besden, a Discovery House program director in Hatboro, Penn., said Oxycontin is the drug most patients use because it is more powerful than Vicodin."Doctors don't like to give pain medication to methadone users," Robin Schulte, a LPN at the local Discovery House said, and it becomes an issue in pain management.Methadone, like the drugs it combats, is an opiate too and the clinics often carry a bad image because of it."People are so ashamed to say they come to a clinic," Schulte said.She said county police officers sit in the parking lot on Cleveland Street and GRIT officers use the huge space as a staging area. It houses commercial property where a beauty shop, barber shop, tax accountant and a flea market call home.Discovery House patients can be detoxed off of illegal drugs in about 30 days. The average length of time on methadone varies from 12 to 18 months. Discovery House plans to offer in the next year, buprenorphine (Suboxone) treatment where patients would come to clinic less frequently. Including Heidenreich, there are three counselors who provide services to 120 patients for $63 per week who live in the surrounding areas. The clinic can comfortable service 350.There weren't any who signed up for services Wednesday during the open house. He hopes that will change in the coming days."They're lives are out-of-control because of usage. We are starting to see more and more teens as heroin addiction takes off. The family dynamics are askew or there might be a predisposition to use. The key element is the environment at home, he said.###

If you've ever heard of the phrase champagne taste on a beer budget, you've found me. I make soap from scratch because regular soap does not agree with my skin, I recreate restaurant meals at home, create appliances I cannot install or afford (yet,) and in general, I figure out a way from no way. I pray a lot too. Join me on my journey. It will be fun.

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William James McCloud III

I hadn't heard anything on the Fourth of July holiday and that was strange. I had the urge to call the day before but since I have a history of being pushy, I let it go.
On the fifth, my birthday, it was my obligation to find out what was going on. It wasn't like Bill to not want to light firecrackers with little Billy on the holiday--it was a yearly debate.
I hoped he wasn't in jail. Illness had not crossed my mind. I thought he was the picture of good health but the things we think can be wrong.
Lauren's Birthday party June 14--the last time we were all together.
He was in the hospital.
William James McCloud III died July 15, 11 days after entering the hospital--after telling his wife Jennifer he wasn't feeling well.
Bill left work early that Wednesday, after consuming an energy drink. Apparently he was having a heart attack. His arteries were blocked.
Bill was only 38 years old. His birthday is next month and his mother tells me a big celebration had been planned.
Bill was my husband. He is the father of my two children. Even though we decided to live separate lives, we still cared for each other. We cared enough to let each other live in peace and stop the fighting. We got along because we wanted to.
Now, he is gone and I feel my former better half has left me alone. When in personal crisis, he was my go-to-guy.
Goodbye, Bill you are loved and I will make you proud and bring honor to your good name.
In Love,
Lauren, Billy and Leslie

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